Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza

As you all know, I am a huge pizza fan. I could eat it every day of the week and be happy as a clam. Even though I have what seems like an army of relatives out in the Chicago area, I can’t remember ever eating authentic deep-dish pizza in Chicago. Up until now, I’ve gotten my fix of deep-dish pizza primarily from a Chicago-based deep-dish pizza chain, which has locations out here in the Pittsburgh area. A couple of weeks ago my Chief Culinary Consultant and I decided to watch a Pittsburgh Penguins practice that was open to the public on a random Thursday morning (love impromptu field trips!). On the way back we were trying to decide where to go for lunch when we spied one of the pizza chain’s restaurants and we knew immediately that’s what we wanted. It’s pretty much impossible to mention pizza to me and then not go ahead and feed it to me. I will become obsessed with having it. We always enjoy the deep-dish pepperoni, however we were shocked when the pizza came to the table. We hadn’t been there in awhile (probably a couple of years), and stared at our “regular size” pizza in awe. It consisted of six small pieces. SIX. Small pieces! For almost $19. Sheer insanity. There was no question that we needed a homemade alternative to that madness, even though it was delicious. Five days later, we had our homemade recipe. It’s fabulous, and I wanted more the second the leftovers were gone. The sauce is thick and chunky, the cheese is gooey, and, most importantly, the crust is buttery, flaky, and delicious. Goodbye overpriced pizza!

The secret to the dough is a process known as laminating the dough, which is similar to how you make croissants (although not nearly as involved or time-consuming). You basically roll out the dough, slather it with lots of butter, and then roll it and fold it in such a way that the butter ends up in thin layers within the dough, which creates a wonderfully flaky texture – one of the key components to a great deep-dish pizza.

As illustrated below, the dough is rolled out into a rectangle, smeared with butter, and then rolled up into a tight cylinder. You then flatten the cylinder slightly so you end up with a long rectangle.

Once you have your long rectangle patted out nicely, you’ll cut it in half (hello knife that still had some basil stuck to it!) and then proceed to fold each half into thirds, like a business letter. Then pinch together all of the seams to seal them up and form two balls. Those go into the refrigerator for a short while, and then you’ll be ready to assemble your pizza. The stint in the refrigerator chills the butter, which is essential for the texture. When cold butter hits a warm oven, it creates pockets of steam, which is how you end up with tons of flaky layers.

Once you’re done chilling the dough, you’ll roll it out into a 13-inch circle and fit it into your oil-coated pan. Next comes the cheese (mozzarella is a must!), throw on any toppings (we love pepperoni) or none at all, and then finish off with your sauce and a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese.

Bake it up, and before you know it, you’ll have crazy delicious pizza waiting for you!

This recipe makes two pizzas, so I decided to make one according to the recipe, and to tweak the second one. The reason? I am not a huge sauce fan and prefer my pizzas with a large cheese to sauce ratio, so I wasn’t sure that I would really like an entire layer of sauce on the very top of my pizza. So, for the second one, I made the pizza exactly the same except that I switched up the order of the toppings on the dough. Instead of cheese, toppings, sauce I did a traditional pizza of sauce, cheese, toppings. In the back of my mind I kind of figured that I would prefer it this way, but boy was I wrong!

Not that it was bad, of course. It’s hard to make a bad pizza, especially homemade. However, the original deep-dish provided a far tastier pizza, and my Chief Culinary Consultant agreed. I was honestly really surprised! However, I shook my head at myself for questioning a Cook’s Illustrated method in the first place – they are usually always spot-on, and this was no exception. I will definitely go all-in with the traditional deep-dish method from now on!

The experimental pizza, however, did provide a really nice gooey, cheesy picture Yum!

I’m thrilled to have an awesome deep-dish pizza recipe to bake up when the urge hits now. I’d love to try a version with sausage and maybe mushrooms, and a vegetarian one as well. Do you have favorite toppings for deep-dish pizza?

Directions:

1. Make the Dough: Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Add water and melted butter and mix on low speed, using a dough hook, until fully combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping sides and bottom of bowl occasionally. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is glossy and smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4 to 5 minutes. (You can easily make this by hand, mixing in the water and butter with a spatula and then kneading by hand.)

2. Coat a large bowl with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Using greased spatula, transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat the dough in oil; cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in volume, 45 to 60 minutes.

3. Make the Sauce: While dough rises, heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add onion, oregano, and salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated and onion is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and sugar, increase heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until reduced to about 2½ cups, 25 to 30 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the basil and olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.

4. Laminate the Dough: Turn the dough out onto dry work surface and roll into a 15x12-inch rectangle. Using an offset spatula, spread the softened butter over the surface of the dough, leaving a ½-inch border along the edges. Starting at the short end, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. With seam side down, flatten the cylinder into an 18x4-inch rectangle. Cut rectangle in half crosswise. Working with one half, fold into thirds like a business letter; pinch seams together to form ball. Repeat with remaining half. Return balls to oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in refrigerator until nearly doubled in volume, 40 to 50 minutes. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

5. Bake the Pizzas: Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each. Transfer 1 dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into a 13-inch circle. Transfer dough to the pan by rolling the dough loosely around a rolling pin and unrolling into pan. Lightly press dough into pan, working into corners and 1 inch up sides. If dough resists stretching, let it relax for 5 minutes before trying again. Repeat with remaining dough ball.

6. For each pizza, sprinkle 2 cups mozzarella evenly over surface of dough. (If you're using any meat or veggie toppings, add them now, on top of the cheese.) Spread 1¼ cups tomato sauce over the cheese (or toppings) and sprinkle 2 tablespoons Parmesan over sauce. Bake until crust is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove pizza from oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Try Lou Malnati’s or Uno’s. I think they are better. I grew up in chicago and now live in Duluth….not a good pizza in sight. Good thing I can make it. But I will try this version and see if it stacks up to the one i have. LOVE deep dish. and STUFED. sigh

Cat, are you by Springfield? I’m living there now, and I think we’re about three hours south of Chicago. If you want a REALLY good pizza, without the three hour drive, you could try Papa Dell’s in Champaign. It is AMAZING, and only 1 1/2 hours away.

I’m looking forward to making this recipe in order to avoid the drive though!

I lived in Chicago for 25 years. I am a seasoned bread-baker. I lived above Gino’s East in Lakeview (by Wrigley) for 3 years. I moved to Montana. The pizza up here is just so so so indescribably bad. I am going to make this recipe and let you know how it stacks up. It looks like you could be pretty on the money though.

my fam is going to chicago sometime soon. So I have definitely been wanting to hit up at least one of these pizza joints. Ive never tried any of them but I love Deep Dish Pizza. But I like a more chewier doughy crust. So of all of the places, which do u think I would like most. and BTW, which is your very favorite and why??
(I’m from UTAH- no deep dish pizza joints out west)

Looks like it came out perfect! Deep dish pizza depends for me on the day – I was raised on thin crust in Germany, and sometimes there’s almost too much dough for me in the U.S. already. Other days I devour it, though 😉

I saw the picture and my first thought was “ohhh..YUMM!!!” This looks amazing! Thanks for the helpful pictures too, I can’t wait to try this! I’m just like you, I could eat pizza every day, and these pictures make me want to!

I love this recipe (CI rocks)! I lived in Chicago for a year and really do get a craving for this kind of pizza every once in a while. Unfortunately, my kids don’t care for it… So, I usually save it for a special meal for my hubby and I! It really is divine!

Hi Jen, I haven’t tried it with this recipe, but I have done it with regular dough. I think you would be fine. Just thaw it in the refrigerator and take it straight from there to roll it, line the pan, etc.

I tried freezing the dough and it worked great!
Thank you for the recipe!
We made a fancy one with *real* carmelized onions and mushrooms and sausage. It was good, but I was surprised to find I preferred the second one- just sauce, cheese, and pineapple bits! Weird but very good.

OMG I miss Chicago soooo much. This pizza looks like something I should try and make for my family who have never been there (and truely don’t understand what there missing out on”. This receipe looks pretty good and you did a great job of laying it out, maybe ill have to print it out to make this weekend!

Hey Michelle–Another amazing recipe from you! Question: can I cheat and use already prepared bread dough? I would still do the laminating step with it. I would love to make this pizza for tomorrow night but with 4 kids, school schedules, and laundry to fold I don’t think I can pull off making the dough! Thanks!

Hi Nicole, You can, but it won’t taste the same and I’m not sure how similarly it will rise. It will just pretty much just be like pizza (bread?) dough in the round pan. Which still might be good! It’s just that one of the biggest things about the Chicago-style deep-dish is the buttery, flaky crust.

I ended up making the dough! Once I read the recipe I realized it wasn’t as hard as I thought. I really enjoyed the process and my family loved it! I also made your cream cheese brownies which were delicious! Thank you for all of your fabulous recipes!!!

Oh my! This looks fantastic! I am from the Chicagoland area and will be making this asap! This pizza looks just like my favorite Chicago pizza and I can’t wait to try to duplicate it. Thanks for posting this recipe.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods too. But I’m an admitted “yeast-killer”. I recently found a great deep dish pepperoni pizza at Aldi for $3.99. Probably about the same size as the one you paid $19 for.

Oh that looks so good! I have never had a deep dish pizza, but have always wanted to try it. Multiple trips have been made to Chicago and still no pizza (that’s just sad). So thank you for this recipe- I think it’s time I took matters into my own hands!
Straight up cheese and pepperoni for me. Boyfriend likes to add peppers, black olives, and mushrooms (shudder).

This looks amazing. I’m going to try it, however, can I freeze one of the balls of dough? There are only two of us at home and we could never eat two pizzas. If I can freeze it, how do I wrap the dough and how long can I freeze it?

Hi Susan, I think you would be okay doing this. I would chill the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in a freezer bag. To thaw, put it in the refrigerator the night before or morning that you plan to use it. I would say the dough would be good for 2-3 months.

I like thin and crispy crust, but my hubby is in love with Chicago deep dish. We have a Chicago-based pizza store near us, and the pizza is good…but kind of pricey. I can’t wait to surprise him with this!

I KNEW there was a reason we were BFF’s! I was going to ask if you could switch the order of the toppings, and you answered it as soon as the thought crossed my mind! Not that i don’t trust you, but I also prefer a higher cheese to sauce ratio so I think I might need to try the amended version.

Hooray, I was hoping you would post this recipe! I am familiar with the pizza chain you mentioned and how ridiculous their prices have become…so I am all over this and seriously cannot WAIT to try it. Love deep dish pizza and yours looks fabulous!!